By Alan Segel
NEFJ Contributor
Foxborough—Back in 1978, there was a movie released by Universal Pictures titled ‘Same Time Next Year.’
It starred Alan Alda and Ellen Burstyn and it was about a couple that had an affair and kept meeting year after year on the same date. The film came to mind this past weekend when the Patriots hired Mike Vrabel as their new coach. He was hired on January 12, 2025, exactly one year to day when Jerod Mayo was hired to replace Bill Belichick. The press conference to introduce Vrabel was held Monday afternoon and was 361 days after the press conference to introduce Jerod Mayo.
So where am I going? If this pattern continues and the organization has to introduce another coach in January of 2026, the Patriots will have major problems.
The credibility of Robert Kraft and the entire organization is on the line with this hire. They need to get this right. There is no longer a “Patriot Way.” The Patriot Way the past two years was consecutive 4-13 seasons with less than stellar play and less than stellar fundamentals. It needs to be fixed.
For good.
Mike Vrabel is making his fifth coaching stop (Ohio State, New England (one year), Houston, Tennessee and Cleveland) and second as a head coach. He brings a wealth of knowledge as a player (Pittsburgh, New England, Kansas City) and had his greatest success in Foxborough playing for Bill Belichick. He knows that things are easy when you are winning. The culture takes care of itself with W’s that are being produced week after week. However, it’s when things aren’t going so well that a team’s culture becomes important.
“One thing I realized about culture is you can find out what your culture looks like when your family, your business, or your team is at its low point,” Vrabel suggested. “It is not when you are 7-1 or 10-1, then everybody is waving towels and everybody’s happy and they’re excited to come to work.”
It used to be that way for the Patriots, who dominated the NFL for two decades. But, at this moment in time, these Patriots are not on the same page on many things. Their quiet and private conversations suggest the culture is not what it needs to be to get back to the playing level that fans – and players too – are accustomed to seeing. The fans have sold out every game since 1994 (except for Covid) but there were many empty seats in 2024, especially for the final two games.
Patriots co-captain Joe Cardona was on hand at the press conference and he liked what he heard from his new coach.
“It is an exciting opportunity to get to work,” he said. “The most important thing is knowing that the expectation is to work hard and do our job.”
Basically, that translates to the culture being changed.
“The culture of this place and getting it back to a product the fans deserve is where we are hoping to be and that is something I am glad to be a part of,” Cardona added.
Vrabel developed his foundation and work ethic playing for the Pittsburgh Steelers (1997-2000). He was a back-up special teams’ guy and back-up linebacker. But all of a sudden, he started to play more special teams and became a third down pass rusher. He was getting noticed.
Former Patriot and Pro Football Hall of Famer Andre Tippett, who is now the Patriots Executive Director of Community Affairs, was in personnel in 2001 and he had Vrabel on a list of free agents that were targeted and brought in. Vrabel succeeded here on many levels and was a true leader that helped create a special culture that produced division, conference and NFL Championships. Tippett suggests that Vrabel has the confidence, the experience and the tools to re-introduce the culture that is now missing.
“I think the fact that he is a no-nonsense player and is a guy that has had success and understands what it takes to have that success is going to give him a foundation to work,” said Tippett. “I think he is going to make sure that guys that become players for him are going to be accountable and work hard. They are going to like the fact that they will think they are going to develop, play fast, and are going to be committed to playing for somebody other than themselves. It is the way it should be and all successful programs have that.”
Vrabel played with a lot of great players and one of the greatest was Troy Brown. He and Vrabel were teammates for seven years and Brown was elected to the Patriots Hall of Fame 11 years before Vrabel was enshrined with a red jacket in 2023. Brown was a foundation of the “Patriot Way” and Patriots’ culture. He has been a coach in Foxborough since 2020 (unofficial year in 2019) and has seen what has happened first hand as the wins dried up and the culture diminished.
He’s as happy as anyone that Vrabel is now on board because he can restore that culture.
“He is a tough guy,” said Brown. “He does not take any nonsense and he talked about it during the press conference. He is going to be looking at his team and see if they are tough, can they play fast, can they be aggressive and can you play smart. Every one of those things”.
All of those traits diminished or were non existent the past two seasons. The fan base has gotten extremely restless and are not used to losing, at least the younger generation isn’t, especially in a non-competitive way. Vrabel has been brought on board to rectify this proud franchise and return it to its glory days. Robert Kraft is depending on him and so is Patriots Nation.
There is no doubt that Vrabel must be successful and that for the sake of everyone involved with the Patriots, they must now have an end to ‘same time next year.’